This was a panel, convened at the Davos World Economic Forum in Switzerland and moderated by WAPO columnist David Ignatius. It was designed to 'discuss the situation in Gaza' and consisted of the usual stacked deck against Israel, Amr Moussa, head of the Arab League, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Islamist Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and - Israeli president Shimon Peres.

It illustrates perfectly why Israel should never count on any fairness or understanding whatsoever from the so-called international community.

The first three speakers spent their time either deploring the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, shilling for money for the Palestinians or accusing Israel of wanton aggression and war crimes.None of them mention Hamas, the rockets or thehumanitarian situation in southern Israel, and frankly I doubt they care.

They undoubtedly expected Israel's leftist President Shimon Peres to join in the chorus, but he surprised them (and perhaps himself) by vigorously defending Israel's right to defend itself..starting at about 39:20 on this video.

You can almost see Erdogan literally radiating hatred as peres speaks, especially when Peres challenges him directly, saying that Egyptian president Mubarak and PA President Abbas 'both know the situation close hand and both blamed Hamas for the war' and then looks directly at Erdogan and says that if rockets were falling on Istanbul "you would have done the same."

Erdogan then demanded time to respond from Ignatius, was told that time was over and asked for one minute.Ignatius gave it to him, and then cut into Erdogan's harangue -during which he called Peres an old man and a liar and said Peres was covering for murderers - after the minute was up and told him no more time was available.Erdogan threw a temper tantrum and stomped out, while Ignatius hemmed and hawed and the audience sat open mouthed in disbelief.

And Shimon Peres? He apparently recovered from his attack of courage, called Erdogan to say sorry and they're friends again.

Simply amazing.

As a sidenote,both Google and my site reveal a number of searches for David Ignatius coupled with the words 'Israeli' or 'Jew'. As anyone knows whose ever read his columns, Ignatius is hardly one of Israel's friends!

The Politico:Gregg confirms he's in Commerce mix - In a move to create a filibuster proof Democrat Senate majority, President Obama has offered New Hampshire Republican Senator Judd Gregg a spot in his cabinet as Secretary of Commerce - which, if Gregg accepts, would allow New Hampshire's Democrat governor to appoint a Democrat to his seat..

Iranian Revolution at 30 - Clifford May in the National Review provides a retrospective and a strategy for the Obama administration to deal with the mullahs once and for all that regular members of Joshua's Army will recall from this site some time ago.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

As regular members of Joshua's Army know, Dutch MP Geert Wilders is facing death threats and actual prosecution in the Netherlands over his documentary , Fitna. A member of the House of Lords invited Wilders to a private meeting in London and intended to invite her colleagues in the Lords to meet Wilders there and see a screening of Fitna, followed by discussion, questions and debate, the way things normally go in a free society.

But what happened instead is that Lord Ahmad, the Labour-appointed Peer pictured above found out about the invitation to Wilders. He then actually threatened to 'mobilize 10,000 Muslims' in the streets to prevent Wilders from entering London and threatened to sue the Peer who was organizing the event.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has cut off contacts with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) amid mounting concern about the Muslim advocacy group's roots in a Hamas-support network, the Investigative Project on Terrorism has learned.

The decision to end contacts with CAIR was made quietly last summer as federal prosecutors prepared for a second trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), an Islamic charity accused of providing money and political support to the terrorist group Hamas, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

CAIR and its chairman emeritus, Omar Ahmad, were named un-indicted co-conspirators in the HLF case. Both Ahmad and CAIR's current national executive director, Nihad Awad, were revealed on government wiretaps as having been active participants in early Hamas-related organizational meetings in the United States. During testimony, FBI agent Lara Burns described CAIR as a front organization.

Hamas is a US-designated foreign terrorist organization, and it's been illegal since 1995 to provide support to it within the United States.

The decision to end contacts with CAIR is a significant policy change for the FBI. For years, the FBI worked with the national organization and its state chapters to address Muslim community concerns about the potential for hate crimes and other civil liberty violations in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

But critics said the FBI improperly conferred legitimacy on CAIR by meeting with its officials, even as its own investigative files contained evidence of CAIR leaders' ties to Hamas.

Last autumn, FBI field offices began notifying state CAIR chapters that bureau officials could no longer meet with them until CAIR's national leadership in Washington had addressed issues raised by the HLF trial, according to people with knowledge of the notifications.

CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper declined to comment Wednesday when the IPT called for comment. Before hanging up, Hooper said "We're more than happy to cooperate with legitimate media. But we don't cooperate with those who promote anti-Muslim bigotry."

Heh!

This has been a long time in coming, and I'll be interested to see if the Obama White House contravenes this. It amazes me that we tolerate a political pressure group funded by foreign governments and masquerading as a 'civil rights group' on our shores.

This makes sense on a political level if nothing else, at least as far as Obama is concerned. Obama wants his own guy there, not one tainted by associations with ex-president Bush so that he can show the Angry Left that he's made the change and dumped a Bush 'puppet'...especially if he plans to ramp up troop deployment.

I personally wouldn't be surprised if our new president was somewhat Taliban friendly and open to a consensus candidate the Taliban would approve.

That could mean that either (a) Obama is looking for a reason to pull our troops out or (b) he's tired of Karzai bitching about US drone strikes and wants someone in the Afghan presidency who's more open to taking orders and looking the other way when necessary.

The rap about Karzhai being corrupt and ineffectual in the linked article is not entirely without substance, but I'd argue that given the realities of Afghanistan, Karzhai's no worse than anyone else who could conceivably be Afghanistan's president.

I'd opt for (a) after a suitable interval, with perhaps a token US force there to 'combat terrorism and train the Afghan security forces,' coupled with a decent amount of aid money. But in either case, President Obama has realized a couple of things.

First, his silly ideas about getting those of our European allies who have avoided getting their hands dirty so far to to actually use combat troops and up their commitments obviously weren't grounded in reality. Our EU friends may have given Barry a standing "o" and voiced their approval at not having to deal with that ignorant Texas blowhard any more, but that's as far as it goes when the pedal hits the metal.

Ditto to Obama's equally silly idea of invading Waziristan with two brigades.

Second, the entire situation in Afghanistan is a lot more complex and difficult than he thought. Obama was probably figuring on using the Iraq 'surge ' formula in Afghanistan that he insultingly derided back when he was a presidential candidate, only to realize that the two situations are very different.

Being a political animal, the last thing I think he would want is to be saddled with an unpopular war that would enrage the nutroots and cut into his support.So I think a new government in Afghanistan, some diplomacy with the Taliban and an exit after a reasonable amount of time could be where we're headed.

Another event that could shed some light on this is Obama's apparent abandonment of missile defense shields for Europe, something Putin appreciated, I'm sure.

Judge Rejects Obama Bid to Stall Gitmo Trial- the judge in question was the head of a military tribunal who rejected the One's request to postpone proceedings againt one of the USS Cole bombers while Washington decides what it's doing here....

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The House Democrats passed Obama's huge $819 billion stimulus bill tonight by a vote of 244-188.It was pretty much a straight party line vote,with all of the Republicans opposing it. They finally learned to say no to obscene government spending the hard way, and it's a pity the lesson wasn't learned years ago.

The House minority leader, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, said the measure "won't create many jobs, but it will create plenty of programs and projects through slow-moving government spending." A GOP alternative plan mostly based on tax cuts got voted down 266-170 moments before the final vote.

Now it goes to the senate.

That this obscenity passed when the American people are overwhelmingly opposed to it shows exactly how much contempt the current congress has for the electorate. And they're counting on the public's short memory and ability to be diverted to avoid any political consequences.

Anti-Bush backlash apparent in race for new RNC chairmanAs they begin meeting in Washington today, many members of the Republican National Committee are focusing their ire against what they considered George W. Bush's anti-conservative policies and trying to dump the man he tapped to run the GOP. ..

The Watcher's Council is a group of some of the most incisive blogs in the`sphere. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one of their own and one from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.

Joshuapundit - Obama’s ‘Change’ In The Middle East President Obama made a number of moves this week that are a clear indication of where his Middle East policy is heading, and his recent interview on al-Arabiya underlined this trend.

His position is obviously that the Arabs and Iran are reasonable people who can be cajoled, appeased or bribed out of jihad. I see absolutely no evidence of that fact, and I examine why I think Obama's misunderstandings in this area will end up being extremely costly ones.

Rhymes With Right - Tom Hanks’ Non-Apology For Anti-Mormon Bigotry - Actors are people who make a living doing and saying what other people tell them to. The vast majority of them should stick to that and bless the good fortune that allows them to be paid so handsomely for simply following directions.

Tom Hanks is a case in point. After gratuitously insulting the Church of the Latter Day Saints as 'un-American' because of their support of California's Prop 8 defining marriage as between one man and one woman, Hanks decided to back track a little bit. But as Greg points out, it wasn't exactly an apology.

Bookworm Room - Offensive “charm” - It's interesting to see a woman's perspective on President Obama's reputed charm, considering how over the top so many of Obama's acolytes have been on the subject. I noticed the trash talking and crude behavior a long time ago,( does anyone recall Obama subtly giving Hillary Clinton and John McCain the finger during speeches on the campaign trail?) and undoubtedly Ms. Bookworm did too.

My own impression of our new president is that he is a sociopath, in the classic sense of the word. His parents abandoning him at an early age might have something to do with it.

Soccer Dad - Ob-eds - Like me, Soccer dad was struck by President Obama's choice of venue fo rhis fiorst official presidential interview. As he points out al-Arabiya is hardly moderate in its content, to say the least.

The Razor - I Won? No Mr. President, Howard Dean Won - Scott credits Howard Dean's decison to be kingmaker rather than nominee with the Democrat's success in 2006 and 2008, and sees a lesson therein on how the Republican party can get its groove back. I largely agree with him.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

President Barack Hussein Obama elected to do his first official presidential interview with Arab news station al-Arabiya. The full transcript is here

As is normal with the new president, there were a great many platitudes and few specifics.

Two things I found significant.

One of the things was Obama's promise to restore relations with the Arab world to "the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago..." or to those of you who can't be bothered to count backwards, to the Clinton and Carter years respectively.

That appears to be pretty much where we're heading.

The second thing was his choice of al-Arabiya itself as a venue. While not a s radical as al-Jazeera or al-Manor, al-Arabiya is not exactly a paragon of moderationas most Americans would look at it.

Obama's entire tone is similar to Bush's statement about appointing an envoy to the jihad friendly anti-Semitic Organization of Islamic Councils ( OIC) "to listen and to learn."

While the president's non-confrontational tone is understandable, in order to restore relations with the Arab world as he says he wants, he is going to have to give them Israel's scalp, endorse the Saudi 'peace' ultimatum in full and radically change America's foreign policy.

Given the steps he's taken in the last few days and the nature of the advisers around him, I wouldn't be surprised if that's exactly what he has in mind.

That was quick..although in this case, I think it was just a parting shot to emphasize Hamas's 'victory:'

The IDF has received a green light to respond harshly to a bomb attack against a military patrol along the border with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning in which one soldier was killed and three others were wounded.

Defense officials would not provide details on the planned response, but said it would be in line with Israel's new policy to respond aggressively to any attack following the end of Operation Cast Lead earlier this month.

Early Tuesday morning, a Beduin tracker was killed and an officer was seriously wounded when a large bomb exploded next to their patrol along the border near the Kissufim Crossing. Two other soldiers were lightly wounded. The bombing was the first lethal attack by the Palestinians since Israel withdrew from Gaza last week

.

You'll notice that this was an Arab, a Bedouin serving in the IDF that was kiled by Hamas. Bedouins and Druse ( who are Arabs but not Muslims) have very little fondness for the Palestinians and serve proudly in the IDF defending their country.

Update: According to the Israeli Ministry of defense, a qassam rocket was lauched at SOuthern Israel.IDF troop are apparently in action near Khan Yunis, where the IAF hit a motorcycle whose rider was one of the Hamas fighters who set off the IED near the Kisufim crossing this morning.

Monday, January 26, 2009

It's no secret that a great many informed people hold CBS News in contempt because of their many instances of unprofessionalism, bias and misinformation. The CBS news show "60 Minutes" has always been particularly egregious in this regard and the absolute garbage - there really is no other word for it - contained in the two segments above on Israel and the Palestinians are simply rife with misrepresentation, conscious ommissions and outright falsehood.

The idea here was obviously to demonize Israel as an occupier of the poor Palestinians, held hostage by those fanatic 'settlers'.

It makes me wonder...after ethnically cleansing Jews from their homes in East Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria in 1948, the Arabs who lived there 19 years before Israel took over in 1967 are still regarded by people like this 'broadcast journalist' Robert G. Anderson as the permanent rightful residents, while people like those evil fanatic Jews are still regarded as 'settlers' after 42 years!

The words 'occupation' and 'apartheid' are freely used throughout the segment, which is ironic considering that Anderson freely admits in the opening moments of part 1 that the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria (AKA the West Bank) are a 'problem' for the Arabs "because they can't have a state with a bunch of Israeli settlers all over it."

That's right...Israel has a 20% Arab population with full legal rights while the Palestinians do not want to tolerate even a single Jew in the territory they occupy, yet Israel is the apartheid state!

Here are just a few things "Sixty Minutes" decided you didn't need to know:

*The segment makes heavy use of interviews with Mustafa Barghouti, who is identified as a 'doctor, and a former Palestinian presidential candidate.' There's no mention of his ties to his cousin, Marwan Barghouti, who was convicted in an Israeli court and is currently in jail for five life terms for masterminding the murder of Israeli civilians. Mustafa Barghouti was also tied to Arafat and the murders committed by Fatah's al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade during the intifada but was not charged, largely because he left Israeli jurisdiction. And in part 2, the interviewer dramatizes the plight of this man who is not an Israeli citizen and who has ties to terrorism being denied a residence permit in Jerusalem when he tried to return after leaving voluntarily.

*Anderson makes mention of the 'seperate roads only Israelis can use' without mentioning that the reason those roads had to be constructed is because the Palestinians would shoot at Israeli civilian vehicles traveling on them and murder the occupants of any car they managed to stop - man, woman or child.

He does the same thing regarding Israel's security barrier and the checkpoints, emphasizing how it 'infuriates Palestinians' but totally leaving out any mention of why the barrier and the checkpoints were necessary in the first place..to stop the Palestinian's homicidal assaults on Israeli civilians.

*Anderson makes much of the Israeli destruction of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem, but barely mentions that the homes were built without permits, without any deference to the legal building codes, were sometimes put up on land the Palestinians involved didn't own and and actually constituted a safety hazard both to the residents and the surrounding structures. He also has an extended segment on Israeli troops 'occupying' a home ( which is exactly how he refers to it) to do surveillance with barely a mention of why it might be necessary, and no mention of the fact that without the IDF's security in Judea and Samaria, Mahmoud Abbas likely wouldn't stay in power a week.

The entire piece makes no mention of the horrendous war Arafat unleashed on Israel's civilians or gives the Palestinians any responsibility for their present plight. For instance, it refers to the Israelis 'invading Gaza' without any mention of the rocket and mortar barrages on Israel that made it necessary.

Anderson never mentions the war between Hamas and Fatah as any kind of obstacle to a peaceful settlement; in fact he never mentions Hamas at all, or the fact that the Palestinians voted for a genocidal organization like Hamas overwhelmingly. Of course, elections have consequences for everyone but the Palestinians, in the view of Mr. Anderson and people like him.

Speaking of elections, Anderson makes a point of mentioning how many 'decent Israelis' agree with his point of view, and tossing in what amounts to a commercial for Tzipi Livni in part 2. The polls of course would seem to disagree with him, but if a center right government that refuses to commit national suicide gets into power in a couple of weeks, it would seem that to Anderson that will be just just another manifestation of how wicked and racist those Jews are...because that's exactly how he presents them, and how the uninformed viewer is intended to perceive them.

Anderson also mouths the nonsense that the Arabs will outnumber the Jews in Israel in a generation, something that most reputable demographers laugh out loud at. In pre-1967 Israel, the Arab population ( which includes the Druse and the Bedouins, who despise the Palestinians and serve in the IDF with pride)the ratio of Jews to Arabs is consistent at 5 to one, or 20%, exactly what it was in 1948 after Israel's War of Independence. In Judea and Samaria, where the so-called 'settlers' live, even the Jerusalem Communications Ceneter, a Palestinian think thank admits that the Palestinians have been exaggerating their numbers for years ( largely because their aid is figured on a per capita basis)and the Jewish birthrate there has more than kept up with the Palestinians.

Based on the idea that the Arabs will outnumber the Jews in Israel shortly, Anderson practically salivates as he finishes up with what he thinks are the three options for Israel, "all of them bad" if the Israelis don't force those wicked settlers to leave homes they lived in for decades. He sees the choices as ethnic cleansing, what he refers to as 'the democratic solution' which will allow the Arabs to take over Israel, evict the Jews and turn all of Israel in Hamastan, or "apartheid"...and then segues to an interview segment with Mustafah Barghouti in which Bargouti asserts that the 'apartheid' is already in place.

Of course, there's a fourth solution, unlikely though it is. The Palestinians could suddenly wake up and realize that they've been used as dupes by the entire Arab world, purge the murderers from their midst and realize that the only way a Palestinian state is likely to be economically and politically viable is with a close and friendly relationship with the Jews of Israel. I put the odds on that as slim and none, especially with enablers like Robert G. Anderson ginning up the works and feeding them the fantasy that one day the Arabs will conquer and massacre the Jews.

That means that either the Palestinians will continue as they are for a few more years until the West gets tired of paying the freight, or the Jews will simply get tired of their murderous ways and drive them over the borders after another abortive war once Hamas takes over the way Jordan did in 1970.

In his own twisted way, Anderson provides his own answer in the ending, featuring the one sane Israeli Jew he bothered to interview, Daniela White. She bends down, grabs a handfull of the soil of Israel and tells him "This is what's important...to hold strong to the soil of the Holy Land."

People like Daniela White are not going to be moved an inch.Nor should they. If Israel can share its country with Arabs, why should any land given to the Palestinians be required to be Jew free, as though they were a cancer? When one swallows the racist notion that Jews should not be allowed to live in Hebron or Gush Etzion strictly because they're Jews, it's not much of a stretch to extend that kind of restriction to Tel Aviv or Haifa for the same reason.Or to London, Paris or New York City, for that matter.

As for Robert G. Anderson and this travesty of journalism, it's indicative of a mindset curent in a number of circles nowadays that goes something like this:If those stubborn Jews would just give in and move on, those cwaa-zy Arabs will leave the rest of us alone.

Recent history has already proven what a delusion that kind of appeasement is.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

The US navy Task Force 151, probably acting on covert intel intercepted the Iranian freighter Nochegorsk flying a Cypriot flag in the Bab al-Mandeb Straits.The ship was en route to Gaza via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.

They found various munitions including what appeared to be artillery shells on board - and US sailors using metal detectors found welded steel compartments packed with more cargo hidden near the bottom of the hull.

Even though this is a joint effort by the US and Israeli navies, The US Navy was very adamant that they would be the ones stopping the ship rather than the Israeli navy out of fear of an international incident just when the Obama administration is planning a new diplomatic engagement with Iran,but that's also led to an unforeseen problem.

In order to thoroughly search the Nochegorsk and unseal the compartments,they're going to need to tow it to a port and that's becoming a problem.

The Israeli port of Eilat was out because of the reasons already mentioned, so far our 'allies' in Egypt, Jordan and the Persian Gulf would rather not be involved, and the other nearby ports are either hostile or pirate controlled.

The last I heard, the Nochegorsk was moored at an Egyptian Red Sea port pending a decision on what to do with it.

The EU is reportedly pushing the Egyptians to take more of a proactive attitude towards cutting down on arms smuggling.

President Obama has made a number of questionable decisions in the last five days,but one of the most potentially far reaching involves his decision to close the tropical resort we run for Islamist terrorists known as Club Gitmo, and to order the CIA to close all of its secret facilities where jihadis are being held.

A number of his fans in the dinosaur media have characterized this as officially 'ending the war on terror'. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Club Gitmo was an answer,if an imperfect one, to a knotty problem of the Bush Administration's own making. After 9/11, President Bush refused to mobilize the nation properly and do what the circumstances called for - asking Congress for a declaration of war against al-Qaeda, it's allied organizations and any nations found harboring or abetting it in the jihad against America. And no, a rinky-dink 'authorization to use force' was not nearly the same thing, as any Constitutional law expert would tell you.

Because the president shirked that Constitutional duty, it meant that virtually every aspect of the War on Jihad had to be resold to the American people and an increasingly hostile and partisan congress,which led to a number of problems and hampered our war effort significantly.

One of those problems was what to do with enemy combatants caught on the field of battle.Had the Decider done what he was supposed to, they would simply have been POWs who could be legally held until the end of hostilities.Instead, they wound up in legal limbo, because since they weren't POWs, they needed to be criminally charged in order to be legally held. Which is why the jihadis who sued the government for habeus corpus to make the Bush Administration justify their continued captivity with actual criminal charges were actually on to something.

In order to press charges and get a conviction in court, the feds needed to compile evidence, much of which was highly classified and then turn it over to the jihadis and their lawyers in discovery prior to the trial. Since the Bush Administration was understandably reluctant to do that,things stayed in legal limbo as these cases percolated through the American justice system on appeals.

Finally, at the point where the courts were going to order the Bush Administration to either show cause for the incarceration of these jihadis or release them, the Bush Administration came up with the idea of using military tribunals to try these cases, which was probably the best idea left standing in view of the earlier screwup of not calling these scum POWs in the first place.

Even at that, a number of the guests at Club Gitmo were simply kicked loose, which meant that many of them went right back to al-Qaeda and fighting the infidels. Most conservative estimates are that at least 60% of the jihadis graduated from Club Gitmo simply went back to war against us.

Club Gitmo and 'secret torture prisons' became a major talking point of the Angry Left and the Democrats in the last election cycle,and it was to be expected that President Obama would toss this raw meat to the base as soon as possible, although characteristically, he left himself a whole lot of wiggle room just in case.

The problem is that Obama's executive order doesn't solve diddly squat.We still have the same basic problem...what are we going to do with these people and with any future jihadis we catch, say if Obama decides to ramp up things in Afghanistan?

Right now, we really have very few options.

We can simply cut all of them loose, which goes along with the EU take on things and means that a number of our enemies will have lived to fight another day, while still others, like the Chinese Muslim Uighers or the Russian Chechens will simply be met at the plane, subjected to a real interrogation and then executed. It will also provide a lot of legal oomph for the lawyers of American traitors like John Walker Lindh who will argue that their client is being discriminated against and should be freed. Especially since we aren't in a declared war.

Or we can continue to hold them,perpetuating the same fuzzy logic of the Bush Administration. But since Obama has given the orders for Club Gitmo and similar facilities to be shut down, that means they'll be held in the continental United States.

Aside from the danger of escape (minimal but not out of the realm of possibility), the chief problem with holding them in the US is that any area where they're being held is going to become a target for al-Qaeda or for jihadi wannabes here in America,and Americans abroad could become kidnapping targets in an attempt to free the al-Qaeda prisoners.

Some jokesters have suggested that the jihadis be held in the West Wing, or in San Francisco ( where they'd probably be greeted by the mayor and a ticker tape parade), but this is not a problem that is going to go away.

Since Obama and the Democrats obviously aren't going to do the right thing and declare these people POWs, Club Gitmo and the military tribunals was probably the next best thing. By shutting that mechanism down, President Obama has made his first major national security blunder.

Increasingly, it looks like the inmates have taken over the asylum in DC.

Friday, January 23, 2009

President Obama appears to be using the Carter administration as a model, with a few of the more insipid errors of the Bush Administration thrown in. Here are a few signs:

* The Obama administration has recognized a new group, American Muslims for Constructive Engagement (AMCE) as one of the groups it considers official advocates for the American Muslim community and has given it unprecedented access to the White House.

In reality, is an Islamist, Muslim Brotherhood front very much in line with the Muslim Brotherhood's ultimate goal of transforming America into a sharia state.

As counterterrorism expert Patrick Poole revealed, the head of the organization is Abubaker Ahmed al-Shingieti, a Sudanese who was one of President Omar al-Bashir top aides when he was involved in the genocidal jihad against the Christian and animist populations in Darfur and other parts of the south and east of the Sudan that killed nearly two million people and created another four million refugees:

The lead organization in AMCE, the International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT), which al-Shingieti serves as regional director, is the current focus of a federal grand jury probe into terrorist financing. At least two other AMCE groups, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), were named by federal prosecutors as unindicted co-conspirators in the recent Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial, which resulted in convictions on all 108 counts. And the Muslim American Society (MAS) was identified in federal court briefs by the Department of Justice as “the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.”

And documents received this past August by the Investigative Project through a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that AMCE steering committee member Jamal al-Barzinji and AMCE advisory council member Yacub Mirza were listed in FBI memos as “members and leaders of the Ikhwan”, which is the Arabic term for the Muslim Brotherhood. Department of Homeland Security senior agent David Kane has testified in a federal court affidavit that “Barzinji is not only closely associated with PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad], but also with Hamas.”

This is highly reminiscent of the Bush Administration's ongoing flirtation with CAIR, ISNA and other Islamist front groups, it's coddling of Saudi-funded jihad mosques in America and our sending an envoy to the anti-American and anti-Semitic Organization of Islamic Conference 'to listen and to learn' in th ewords of th erecently departed former occupant of the White House.

*The appointment of Arab-American ex-senator George Mitchell as Mid East special envoy and Obama's pledge to get his face into what he refers to as 'peace between the Israelis and Palestinians' as a top priority of his administration.

Mitchell is an extremely problematic figure both from Israel's standpoint and from the standpoint of US security and ultimately,stability in the region..He has a number of curious beliefs, such as an avowed hostility to Jews living in Judea and Samaria ( AKA the West Bank) or in East Jerusalem and a conviction that the intifadeh was not planned by the Palestinians, in spite of admissions to the contrary by Yasir Arafat, Arafat's information minister Yasir Rabbo,and Arafat's own commissar in Jerusalem Feisal Husseini, who famously referred to Oslo as a Trojan horse to trick the Jews.

He apparently is convinced that the problem between Israel and the Arab world is just like Northern Ireland,a conflict he takes credit for having helped mediate. In doing so,he conveniently forgets a few things: that while Britain had no major stake in Northern Ireland, Israel's 'stake' in retreating to a border only nine miles wide at it's narrowest point and with its major population centers in easy firing range of its enemies is existential in nature; that there was no genocidal intention among either the Ulster Unionists or the IRA,something that cannot be said of the Palestinians; that there were no outside countries using the IRA as a proxy army;and that the real end to the Ulster conflict came when the Republic of Ireland outlawed the military wing of the IRA and cracked down on them hard and both civilians and leaders on both sides tired of the slaughter and realized that both sides would have to compromise to come to a solution. That is not true of the Palestinians,who have hardly tired of 'resistance.'

On a personal level, Mitchell himself can hardly be said to be unbiased. Aside from his ethnic background and his professed sympathies, he has a long history of doing business with the Arab world, including countries that religiously support an anti-Israel boycott that is against US law.

Mitchell appears to agree with the Palestinians (and more importantly, with the Saudis and the Arab League)that any and all compromises are going to come at the expense of the Israelis, which will likely put him and the next likely center/right Israeli government on a collision course and substantially change the relationship between the US and one of its most important and reliable allies.

That the Obama Administration agrees with Mitchell's viewpoint on the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria is shown by recent information that he intends to cut loan guarantees to Israel( which are not direct aid and cost the US absolutely nothing,but help Israel borrow money at lower rates) by a billion dollars based on money Israel spends on any infrastructure and services not within the pre-1967 borders, including East Jerusalem.

*Finally, there is Obama's recent pressure on Israel to 'open Gaza's borders.'

In examining what he had to say, the new direction of American policy in the Middle East becomes crystal clear:

“The outline for a durable ceasefire is clear: Hamas must end its rocket fire: Israel will complete the withdrawal of its forces from Gaza: the US and our partners will support a credible anti-smuggling and interdiction regime, so that Hamas cannot re-arm,” the US president said.

“As part of a lasting ceasefire, Gaza’s border crossings should be open to allow the flow of aid and commerce, with an appropriate monitoring regime, with the international and Palestinian Authority participating.”

It all sounds lovely, until you realize that this is exactly the formulae put together by Condi Rice, the PA, the EU and Egypt when Israel withdrew from Gaza and it failed miserably.

It's even more clear now to anyone that's paying attention that this is even more of a silly non-starter than it was in 2005.

For openers, Hamas is not going to sign on to any of this; they don't recognize Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah's authority over Gaza,they will NOT stop firing rockets and Iran and Syria cannot be trusted to abide by it anyway.Nor will the Egyptians allow foreign 'monitors' on their side of the border - Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak just said so.

At a time when the US definitely needs a new way and some common sense in the Middle East,Obama appears to be headed back to the future...and in exactly the wrong direction.

..has New York City lefties hopping mad! Not only is Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand from upstate, she's an NRA backed pro-Second Amendment relatively conservative Democrat who voted against the bail out!

Governor David Paterson will undoubtedly catch hell for this, as two prominet New York State families on the left, the Kennedys and the Cuomos were engaged in a mini-war over the seat.

After Caroline Kennedy-Schlossberg officially announced her withdrawal, Chris Cuomo was supposedly slated to get it, but Paterson, for reasons that remain his own, chose Gillibrand. And I'm good with that!

Caroline Kennedy quit trying for Hillary Clinton's Senate seat because of a "tax problem" and "potential nanny issue," a source close to Gov. Paterson said Thursday.

"She was facing some potentially embarrassing personal issues" that came up in the vetting process, the source said, adding the governor had decided she wasn't up to the job anyway.

Kennedy cited "personal reasons" in a one-sentence statement announcing the end of her Senate bid. Marital problems may have also been a factor, sources said.

I must admit this strikes me as odd. Tax problems and 'nanny issues' would seem to be no problem whatsoever,based on the background of whom Obama has picked for his cabinet...sothere must have been something wlse involved.

The Council has spoken! A complete rundown of the voting tallies is here.

An interesting week on the Council, as we had a three way tie for first.Accordingly, the Watcher cast the deciding vote as per our arcane by-laws which means that this week's winner was The Colossus of Rhodey for The entertainment of moral ambiguity a fine piece for which I voted that drew an ingenious comparison between the re-invention of TV show BattlestarGalactica and the situation with Israel .

Among the non-Council entries, I was again particularly glad to see that the winner was my nominee, Seraphic Secret's Robert Avrech writing over at Big Hollywood with The Real Battle Of Algiers, Part 2 , the companion piece to Learning From the Real Battle of Algiers ,which wonlast week. Robert compared the classic film - a masterpiece of leftist/Islamist propaganda - with the reality of what actually happened there.

In second place was Armed and Dangerous for Gramscian Damage , something I wish I'd written. It concerns how the Soviets actually waged war on American society by atacking American institutions,culture and information dissemination and explores how the Islamists are using exactly the same tactic today

As usual, congratulations not only to the winners, but to all the participants.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The court overruled the public prosecutor who had declined to prosecute Wilders, whose film "Fitna" urged Muslims to tear out "hate-filled" verses from the Koran.

"The Amsterdam appeals court has ordered the prosecution of member of parliament Geert Wilders for inciting hatred and discrimination, based on comments by him in various media on Muslims and their beliefs," the court said in a statement.

"The court also considers appropriate criminal prosecution for insulting Muslim worshippers because of comparisons between Islam and Nazism made by Wilders," the statement said. {...}

"This is a very black day for me and for freedom of speech. I am shaken. I had absolutely not expected it," Dutch news agency ANP quoted Wilders as saying in an initial reaction.

Geert Wilders has a long history of fighting against what he calls the Islamization of the Netherlands. He's been the recipient of numerous death threats courtesy of the Religion of Peace because of it,which means he's had to live under 24 hour guard.Yet, with all that Wilders refused to be intimidated which has made him one of the most popular politicians on the Right in the Netherlands. This March, he released a short but explosive film called Fitna, ( which I recommend you watch) which seeks to show the connection between Islamic terrorism and the Qu'ran. The film pairs graphic footage of Islamic terrorism – including the 9/11 attacks, the Madrid train bombings, and the beheading of American contractor Nicholas Berg – with Koranic verses and clips of Islamic clerics preaching the murder of non-Muslims.

While the film has its rough points, the reaction to it proved Wilders' point beyond a doubt. When the film came out, it was released on the Internet by Liveleak, who quickly pulled it citing what they called “threats to our staff of a very serious nature.” The film was denounced by Islamists and their useful idiots throughout the world, with imams in the Middle East threatening slaughter if it ever saw the light of day. Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen, urged Wilders to give in to Islamist demands and destroy the film, warning that it could “endanger the lives of Dutch nationals” abroad, while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon bowed to the UN's Muslim bloc and called it “offensively anti-Islamic.”

What's absolutely astounding about all this is that Wilders received support for "Fitna" from a very unusual source, Libyan-based jihadist Imam Omar Bakri. According to Bakri,not only was the film not offensive but as Bakri explained, the linkage of the Qu'ran with violent jihad against the infidel was entirely accurate.

There's a back story to Wilders' legal prosecution of course. Because of his popularity and the fact that many of the Dutch are increasingly starting to agree with Wilders, he's a major target of the Dutch Left which increasingly depends on Muslim votes in the elections. Wilder is particularly hated by Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and Minister of Justice Hirsh Ballin.

What seems to have happened is that an MP of the PvdA (Labour) party Els Lucas originally sought to have the public prosecutor charge Wilders.When he declined, Lucas brought the case to the much more liberal Amsterdam appellate court...which agreed to prosecute Wilders, thus forcing the public prosecutor's hand. So there's a good chance that Balkenende and Ballin has an unseen hand in the sudden reversal. it benefits them politically since Wilders' party will now have to spend enormous sums on legal fees instead of politics and campaigning.

Apparently this is an attempt to run Geert Wilders out of the Netherlands, the same way Ayaan Hirss Ali was hounded out of the country.

On a larger scale,this represents a precedent that will be eagerly seized on in the EU by the Islamists and their allies on the Left in shutting down free speech.

As a point of interest, Dutch imam Ahmad Salam is a Syrian immigrant who is well known in the Netherlands for preaching sermons urging Muslim men to beat their wives, telling his followers not to pay their taxes in order to “damage the state and calling for the destruction of Israel and the Jews.

He still lives and preaches in the Netherlands. And nobody is prosecuting him for anything.

U.S. stocks sank, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its worst Inauguration Day decline, as speculation banks must raise more capital sent financial shares to an almost 14-year low.

State Street Corp., the largest money manager for institutions, tumbled 59 percent after unrealized bond losses almost doubled. Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp. slumped more than 23 percent on an analyst’s prediction that they’ll need to take steps to shore up their balance sheets. The Dow’s 4 percent slide was the most on an Inauguration Day in the measure’s 112-year history, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and the Stock Trader’s Almanac.

“All the banks are going to have to recapitalize,” said Greg Woodard, portfolio strategist at Manning & Napier Advisors Inc., which manages $16 billion in Fairport, New York. “That’s not done. That’s in front of them, and we don’t want to try to get in front of that trade.”

The S&P 500 plunged 5.3 percent to 805.22. The S&P 500 Financials Index fell 17 percent to below its lowest closing level since March 1995 as concern European banks need more capital also weighed on the group. The Dow average slid 332.13 points to 7,949.09. Both the Dow and S&P 500 retreated to two- month lows.

The S&P 500 is off to its worst start to a year, shattering the biggest rally since World War II, as analysts cut earnings estimates by a record 83 percentage points and companies signal worse to come.

The S&P 500 is down 11 percent in the first 12 trading days of 2009, exceeding last year’s 9.2 percent drop, according to data compiled by Bloomberg going back to 1928. The decline helped erase more than two-thirds of a 24 percent rally since Nov. 20 as optimism that government spending would revive the economy evaporated.

The 'rally' they're talking about involved the smarter players eithe rpicking up corporate assets at fire sale prices or dumping most of their holdings and getting into cash. That part of the action's over, which is why trading volume is down. What's happening now is that the rest of the herd is catching on and playing follow the leader.

From the day Obama was elected to his inauguration the S&P 500 index has lost 17% of its value, after taking a look at Obama's proposed cabinet and hearing the gist of his economic plan. That can't be blamed on Bush. It counts as the "Obama crash".

Unless the new president offers something very different, and quickly,he's going to be the modern equivalent of Herbert Hoover, and his fall in the public esteem could be even quicker than his rise. Bush is history, and while the media and the Democrats will try to spin it, if the economy continues to deteriorate there will be no one left standing to blame but Obama.

Before the US entered World War II, Franklin Delano Roosevelt borrowed no more than 6% of gross national product as deficit spending in any one year. During his first year in office, Obama will have borrowed roughly double that amount.

The Watcher's Council is a group of some of the most incisive blogs in the`sphere. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one of their own and one from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.

Joshuapundit - Israel Capitulates - Once again, the weakest and most corrupt government in Israel's history allowed itself to be pressured into a farcical and meaningless ceasefire that snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

This is a defeat for both Israel and the West, and both will regret it in the future.

The Glittering Eye - Fallacy of Composition -As usual, Dave Schuler looks beyond the hype and gets to the heart of the matter...in this case the mortgage crisis. He's totally correct that the vast majority of the problem exists in a handful of states and especially in southern California. As one who lives there, I had to smile at his notion of 'fixing ' California as he advocates. That would involve the feds taking over the state, deposing the governor, most of the state's elected officials, the legislature, and perhaps a number of county supervisors as well as rescinding several laws that directly contribute to the problem. It would also include dealing effectively with California's illegal alien problem, the 500 pound gorilla in the room that has had a fairly large impact on both inflated housing costs and foreclosures as well as California's general economic malaise.

Since that's unlikely, either the feds will simply rev up the printing presses and throw more money at the state and exacerbate the final reckoning, or the locals will finally demand that their elected officials take the necessary action once the state is bankrupt and vital services start being curtailed, or the more productive residents of the state will simply leave and go elsewhere, a trend that is already in evidence.

As I pointed out in an earlier piece on the subject,California is usually ahead of the curve on these kinds of trends..and we just inaugurated exactly the same kind of political set up on a national level - but with the single exception that the Feds can print their own money and make things even worse.

The Razor - Seeds of Destruction - The seed Scott writes about is the kernel of greed and corruption that occurs when one party controls things. And as he points out, neither party is immune.

The Colossus of Rhodey - The entertainment of moral ambiguity - Hube has an interesting piece this week, comparing the 're-inventing' of the theme and meme of the sci-fi show Battlestar Galactica with the reinventing and distortion of the facts surrounding Israel and the Middle East.

Bookworm Room - The Inspirational President - Ms. Bookworm recounts yet another futile political discussion with Mr. Bookworm, this time over the nature of President Obama's qualifications for office.

Soccer Dad - Teaching Thomas - Soccer Dad does a fine job pointing out the fallacies and misinformation in New York Time's columnist Thamas Friedman's take on the recent Gaza War. As for teaching him...well, having run into him publicly once at a lecture and observing the drivel he normally writes, I'm reminded of WC Field's old line on the futility of trying to teach a pig to sing.

This is not new. Contrary to popular belief, neither the UN or the International Committee of the Red Cross are neutral bodies in the War against the Jews. UNRWA is notorious for allowing anti-Semitic incitement in its schools, sheltering armed combatants and even allowing the storing of arms and munitions in its facilities in violation of its own UN instructions. They also routinely ignore a UN directive requiring them to screen recipients of aid to make sure they are not affiliated with terrorist groups.

The ICRC also has a long and despicable history of anti-Israel bias. For years, the Israeli Red Mogen Dovid was prohibited from membership by the organization, while the Palestinian Red Crescent was cheerfully accepted.During the intifada, the Red Crescent was used by Arafat, Abbas and their friends to transport armed combatants, homicide bombers and explosives and they were caught at it numerous times.

On one occasion, the Palestinians wired an ambulance as a car bomb they planned to drive into the heart of Jerusalem and had the explosives trip wired underneath a ten-year-old child 'patient'. The IDF, after intercepting the ambulance determined that the explosives could not be safely removed, and actually called in officials of the ICRC to show them the ambulance and the explosives, and then detonated it safely in front of them.

The Palestinian Red Crescent was never disciplined or sanctioned bythe parent body in the slightest for these war crimes, even though the ICRC was well aware they were occuring...and I have a letter response to my concerns on this matter in my files from Dr. Kellenberger, head of the ICRC to prove it.

Right Truth - Obama, he’s only human - Debbie Hamilton does not care for our new president, and especially not for the air of adulation surrounding him.

The Provocateur - The Insider Story of ACORN - And speaking of President Obama, Mike Volpe has a capsule history on ACORN, a very questionable organization the president helped push in his days as a community organizer.